When Ryan Flint got into real estate, he realized he wanted to deal with CEO’s and corporations rather than sell homes. That’s when he decided to go into commercial real estate.
He then learned pretty quickly that the commercial real estate brokerage community is pretty competitive. And to survive, you’d have to “eat what you kill”. He also noticed that this industry lacked a good customer service base. He found this difficult to accept because he grew up in a family where they were taught to do selfless acts for others and not just to think about their own gain.
Ryan wanted to do things differently. He thought, he may not be able to change how the commercial real estate world thinks, he can at least change the way he does things. By focusing on providing good customer service, he was able to develop key relationships that turned out to be a major factor in his success.
Less than a decade into the business, Ryan is now considered a rockstar of the commercial real estate industry. He’s highly respected and decorated across the country, winning several top-performing awards throughout his career.
Today, Ryan Flint, SIOR, is the CEO and Principal of the Ryan Flint Team. They’re one of the top commercial real estate teams in Utah and they primarily do office industrial land investment sales, offering 100% full service across the board.
Let’s hear from Ryan as he shares his journey and how implementing his own way of customer service and helping others helped his business thrive.
.
Top Takeaways:
03:57 How Ryan became an expert at building solid relationships
06:33 What makes Ryan different from his competitors
16:15 The most powerful thing about customer service
17:41 Ryan’s advice to those in the residential real estate space
21:28 The biggest takeaway Ryan’s dad taught him
25:11 What makes the Ryan Flint Team special
33:35 Commercial real estate’s biggest challenge
37:47 The next step in Ryan’s life
42:17 What Real Estate Avengers is all about
43:36 How much value can you get from a mastermind group
To get in touch with Ryan Flint, check his Instagram page @the.ryanfint or email him at info@ryanflintteam.com. You may also check their website at www.ryanflintteam.com
Podcast Transcript:
Brian Charlesworth 0:36
Alright, hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Grit Podcast. I'm Brian Charlesworth. I'm the founder of Sisu, and the host of the show. And for those of you who don't know what Sisu is Sisu is all about streamlining and automating the real estate industry. And this is going to be an amazing year for us, we've got some big things going on that we probably won't talk about in this show. But if you want to learn more about that, just check out our website sisu.co. That's sisu.co. So today, I am here with a friend and somebody who I respect tremendously. Ryan Flint, Ryan is just a rock star of the commercial real estate industry here in Utah. And I've been fortunate enough to have him be like our early user on Sisu, which has been been great to see that we also are valuable for commercial real estate, which has not been our focus up to this point. But Ryan runs one of the top teams in Utah and in the country and is now at Mountain West commercial, and is highly respected and decorated across the country just as won a ton of awards. If you drive through Farmington, Utah, and all of Utah, you'll see his signs everywhere. And he basically runs the entire all real estate flows through him in the office center that we're in. So anyway, Ryan's also ventured out into some other spaces that I want to talk about today. She's got a lot going on, and want to learn more about how he differentiates himself in the industry. So Ryan, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining today.
Ryan Flint 2:16
Thanks for having me, Brian. Pleasure.
Brian Charlesworth 2:19
Hey, anything you want to add to that intro as we get started
Ryan Flint 2:22
I'm super grateful for everything that you said I, if I'm a little red, it's because I'm blushing. I'm grateful for our relationships. So thank you. Those are kind words.
Brian Charlesworth 2:35
Well, let's get started, then maybe you could just tell us a little bit more about your business, I think it'd be a great place to start. You're still extremely young, and just have somehow just been able to dominate muta. So I'd love to hear more about how this has all come about.
Ryan Flint 2:50
Yeah, so I am a commercial real estate broker. I primarily do office industrial land investment sales, and have built a team that is full service 100% across the board. And I've been in the business for just under a decade. And like you said, just came over to Mountain West commercial real estate, which people say that maybe they're a boutique, but they're a very big boutique in the intermountain west region. I came from Colliers International, I'm sure we'll probably get into that a little bit. But yeah, I've got an amazing team and have learned so much over the years of how to do things a little bit different. And it's propelled us into some very successful years and, and more importantly, some amazing relationships that we've developed over those years. Like with your team at Sisu, and, and those that you affiliate with. So the intro that you gave me was was amazing. So thank you.
Brian Charlesworth 3:58
So Ryan, you mentioned relationships. Like if I look at you, that's the one thing I always say to myself, like Ryan is the expert. He's the King, just developing and building solid relationships. Like, if I want, if I want to get in and have a relationship with any business person in Utah, I could probably come to you and you could make an intro and we could figure that out. So how do you do that?
Ryan Flint 4:23
Well, that's nice of you. If there's one thing that people ask me, you know, where do you have your success or what makes you successful? It's 100% of the time Brian, I tell people it's it's the relationships that I have. It's the people that I surround myself with. And that doesn't always come easy. One thing I was gifted with when I was little is a lot of the relationships that I had were with my friend's parents. I was always the one that was interacting with adults. So from a very young early age, I was talking there talk as I think yeah, as I as I grew older and You know, served a mission in Mexico and had to learn that language and really stretch myself I, I learned to love people, and it was more than just getting to know them as a caveat to what can you do for me, it was more of how can I serve you. And the more that I have done that and had that focus, the relationships have, honestly come very natural. The relationships in business are, it's important to me that it's not just one transaction or one consultant, you know, consultancy, it's, it's that it's a long term relationship, you know, we become friends look at our relationship that initially was just getting to know each other, see how we could help each other with Sisu, or real estate or commercial or whatnot. And now, you know, we could talk about almost anything, and go hours and hours and hours without even talking work. And that's important to me. So, one thing that's really important, also, Brian is when I give referrals, I hold my relationships very accountable. And if I give Brian Charles worth a referral, he knows that he needs to be treated the same as if it was me with love and respect. And that goes a long ways, because then that relationship becomes Brian's. And that's important to me, too.
Brian Charlesworth 6:27
Yeah, awesome. Okay, so you've talked about this, maybe that maybe that is your differentiator, but what is it that makes you so different than the rest of the commercial world out there? Because you are?
Ryan Flint 6:41
Yeah, for sure. So this is a long story, but I'll, I'll keep it pretty quick. When I got into the business, it was not, it was luck. I got in with a friend, that took a chance on me, I wanted to get into the real estate field. But I wanted to do more of the companies I wanted to deal with CEOs I wanted to deal with, with corporations, rather than sell homes. And that was the niche that I chose not that it was wrong or right, it was just what got me going. And when I got in, I learned very quickly that the commercial real estate brokerage community was pretty staunch, it was very competitive. There are a lot of let's call them sharks, some are good, some are bad. But it was eat what you kill, and just tenacious out there. What I didn't see was a good customer service base. That was really hard for me, because I came, I grew up being around my dad and my mom that were just so giving, and everything was customer service. Everything was about doing selfless acts for others, and not about just your own game. And so when I got into the commercial real estate world, I, I thought to myself, this might be tough, but maybe there's a way that I could change the way at least I do things, I can't change the whole commercial real estate brokerage game, but I can maybe do something that's different. You know, every one of us have our niche, whether it's doing warehouses, or office and, or retail or, you know, drive throughs or land, whatever it is, well, being up north in northern Utah, and starting out so small, and on my own, I had to take on whatever I could to make ends meet. And some of those were small land deals, some of them were small, little incubator, industrial flex buildings that were just a couple $100 At most commission. And I thought to myself, Okay, I will hone in on whatever my niche is, when it comes to the side of the business I do, whether it's industrial office, but more than anything is I want to change the way that customer service is, I want to I want to be known as the guy that people can go to, without any obligation on the on the return. So I just started branding myself that way. And instead of having the idea, I thought, hey, I'm just gonna start implementing it. I have nothing to lose, but I have everything to gain. And so I just went to work, and started to treat people with love. I took every assignment that I had, whether big, small, or even just a consulting fee, as that I focused on what can I do for them and not feel like they owe me anything in return. And one thing led to the other and it just started to work. And I feel like I pioneered that effort here in Utah for sure. In about 2000 15, maybe 2016, I came across an individual in Phoenix by the name of Jonathan Kaiser, he has his own brokerage called Kaiser. And getting to know him, I reached out to him, because he was running his business off of customer service, and selfless acts and reading his story, he came out with a book, and it just hit home with me. So instead of just implementing what he had in his book, I thought, man, him and I are so much alike. Again, I have nothing to lose, but I'm going to reach out to him. I reached out to him, and he invited me down to Phoenix, and I spent a couple of days with him. And what's so amazing is I, he just welcomed me right into his house, I stayed at his house. And we started sharing our visions together, he had opened up a brokerage that was set strictly on helping others and, and service. And I took what he taught me being one of my mentors, and implemented even more in the business that I was doing here in Utah, which escalated, you know, beyond that,
Brian Charlesworth 11:12
that that you went down to his house? Oh, it was
Ryan Flint 11:15
probably 2015 For the first time. Okay, so I had been in the business maybe, you know, three, four years at that time. And, you know, when you when you surround yourself with people around like Jonathan, it was, it was not just a, a sales pitchy type of conversation. It was so raw, so authentic, it was so beautiful, the way that he treated people, and I saw it firsthand, just hanging out with him go into meetings, seeing clients come in the way he treated his, his own staff and brokers, I thought to myself, Oh, my goodness, I want to be that type of broker, I want to be that type of leader. Because initially in the brokerage world, it was when I got in it was I kept saying to myself, I want to be the exact opposite of how I'm treated right now. How do I do that, without any power, without any say, and when I started implementing not only my own way of customer service, and helping others and, and, but then, coupled with what Jonathan Kaiser taught me, my business just started to boom. And it was because I was more focused on helping others, then I was on just doing deal by deal. And that's when the repeat business would come. That's when the 500 square foot tenants would, that I helped early on, would come back and say, Hey, I need 1000 square feet, then 10,000 square feet and 100,000 square feet. And before you know it, your family with them. And I mean, just take, take the example that I have with with you and spring Ryan, you know, it could be as small or big. But on both sides, there's no question whatsoever that I'm here, whether it's me making a penny or anything at all, I will do anything that I can to help you. And you know that Yeah, and I feel the same, I feel the same. And so it's hard, it's a hard business to go into as far as just being very customer service oriented. And not having the mindset of, okay, I've got to make this commission, or I've got to do this deal, because it only justifies my time and value. I knew it was a huge sacrifice. But I said, Hey, I again, this is the person that I want to be this is the professional, the leader, I want to be I know seeing Jonathan success, because he had been in the business for, you know, 1520 years at that time, it's going to take time, but it's going to be real. And when that hits, it's going to be big. And it didn't take more than a year before I saw all of the fruits of the hard work and labor that I had put into focusing on customer service. So looking back now, it's just such a beautiful thing. I take a completely different approach. On the way I do business. Even with brokers, I've got a lot of broker relationships that are within our firm outside of our firm. They're all my friends. And so when they have questions, or they have assignments that are in an area that maybe I'm the expert in, they know that they can reach out to me without feeling like oh, we've got to give Brian a referral fee or we've got to give him this deal. And then step away. It's actually the opposite. It's how can I empower you as a as a broker, representing a company to the best of your ability and focusing on how I can make people the best versions of themselves. It's hard. It's hard being in the real State game or any business per se, without knowing that there's something coming in, but it's a beautiful thing. It really is. And I'm grateful that I went that route because it's only gotten me better. It's it's gotten me not only to be more desired as people's advisor, but it's opened up a lot of doors for me to, to escalate my business and gain relationships. Yeah, I'm
Brian Charlesworth 15:27
sure it has. Thank you for sharing that. So as I look at what you're doing, right, I mean, you chose to go commercial, you want to interact with CO CEOs instead of first time homebuyers. When I was selling real estate for a year and a half, two years, I tended to flock that direction, as well, spring had me focusing on listings, but I was also that what that ended up being was, a lot of those ended up being commercial land deals or, you know, help helping people do storage units or whatnot. But I don't think it matters which industry you're in, whether it be commercial or residential, if everyone could adopt what you just shared, like everyone's success is going to go through the roof because people feel that
Ryan Flint 16:13
100% 100%. And when you have that trust, and you have that relationship, it's so easy to just communicate clearly with, with your clients and your friends. So many times, us real estate professionals or just people in general in business, sometimes get caught up in telling their clients what they want to hear just to save a relationship to save a so called assignment or listing in real estate. And the beauty of it is the authenticity that comes from customer service that's built up through trust over time, that when those hard conversations have to come, they're actually really easy. And you can you can portray the message of what they need to hear, or how they need to pivot on making their property better. That's probably been the the most dynamic or powerful thing in, in what I deal with, because I'm dealing with mostly very educated, sophisticated people, you know, it's more of a financial decision and economical equation, rather than a super emotional buy, like in residential. And so being able to just be honest, given that they know it's out of a good sense of your heart. It comes from that customer service for sure.
Brian Charlesworth 17:40
So what would your advice be on residential, a lot of our listeners happen to be in residential. So I mean, obviously, like, it is such a difference, because in residential, it's usually just an emotional decision. Right? There's no business logic behind it. And over on the commercial side, you have, it's all business, right? And it's not they're not emotional about it. It's just a business transaction.
Ryan Flint 18:05
That's right. And And don't get me wrong, there are some emotions about, you know, different cities or visibility, you know, every sector of commercial real estate is different. But when you're dealing with investors, or developers, of course, there's a little bit of emotion, but it's, it's mostly just an economical equation, what I, what I would encourage the real tours or the residential brokers agents, would be is to think outside the box and be creative. What clients want, what people want, is authenticity. They want the real thing they want raw. And so many times we get caught up trying to oversell or over promise. And then we we work so hard to deliver on those high expectations. I mean, the market, especially in Utah, is just absolutely nuts. And so being able to talk about high, sell prices on the residential side is probably fairly easy. But at the end of the day, it's going to be a trust thing. What happens if, if our market has a tank, you know, what happens if something wrong goes on? What if through the due diligence, they find something that wasn't disclosed, they're gonna want somebody they trust and being that agent, you have to have the courage to say what they need to hear. And it all comes back to customer service. I mean, whether you're in the restaurant industry, whether you're a residential agent, a commercial agent, software developer, it comes down to customer service, it comes down to loving people and loving what you do. And sometimes people are scared of that word. But if you care about your customer enough, and you and you work out of love, it's gonna go so far it comes, it's so much easier to work when you actually love that person, enough to go fight for them. And sometimes fighting for them is being honest with them and saying, Hey, here's our challenge. This is how we're gonna work through it. We're linking arms, we can do this. So, yeah, there. I mean, Brian, there's so many ways that that customer service comes in handy it really as
Brian Charlesworth 20:37
People can feel where you come from, for sure. And right. So you're, that's something that I love about you. And something that is always differentiated you but that's, the people know where you're at, right? And they know, why is he doing this for me? Is he doing this? Because he cares? Is he doing this? Because he wants money? Is he doing this? You know, they can feel that. And I think that that stuff that's right here and your soul, right? That's the stuff that people feel. And that's how you treat people. And that's what goes out. That's why you're so authentic, Brian, because that's who you are. So anyway, I really appreciate you sharing that message. Because I think everyone needs to hear that doesn't I like, like you said, it doesn't matter what business you're in.
Ryan Flint 21:27
For sure. You know, the the biggest takeaway that my dad taught me when I was young was be a good steward, over whether it's money, or whether it's properties, or whether it's, you know, customers in a restaurant, be a good steward over the people that you are serving, and the things that you are, are accountable for. And when you are, you will naturally have opportunities to do more. It's not that you'll necessarily get more, but you'll have opportunities to do more. And for me, is if I get an opportunity to serve one more person, hopefully that affects five people, or 10 people or 20 people. Because when you're serving out of love, honest to goodness, it's a domino effect. And that's why the success with our team has been so evident, is because it's become a big domino effect. All from a simple act.
You just said, right? It's not that you're necessarily going to get more and you definitely don't want to go at it with that approach. But the reality is, the universal law is, the more you give, the more you get, right. That's right. So so the more you can benefit other people's lives, the more your life will be blessed. That's correct. So okay, that's such a powerful message. Thank you for sharing, we could just wrap it up right now. But I've got some other things I want to ask you. So one of the things you said you talked about, call yours. And you talked about how some people are saying, you know, you might be more of a boutique brokerage now. And I know in my opinion is in residential real estate, it doesn't matter what brokerage you're at, right? This is about you, this is about your team. This is not this is about the Ryan Flint team. This has nothing to do with Colliers or Mountain West or anybody else. So do you agree with that? Or what's your thoughts on that?
I 100% agree with that. Because to be very transparent, I, it was very hard for me to leave my call your family because they didn't do anything wrong, I did not do anything wrong. It was just a formality and a contract. And that was it. And so I could have easily taken it off into left field and, and made up all these things and vice versa. And it's just, that's not important to me. I realized as I was making the transition, that and talking to my clients, whether it's listings or assignments and giving them the opportunity to choose, it was very evident that it doesn't matter what brokerage you are at, it doesn't matter what Jersey you wear, it all comes down to them having trust in you, as a professional knowing that, okay, if you can continue doing the work like you've done time and time again, then I don't have to worry about it. And frankly, Brian, some of the clients that I had that are our big clients even had to ask, like, what brokerage are you with in the first place? Because we focus all of our efforts about them? Yeah,
Brian Charlesworth 24:53
no, nobody, nobody said hey, I want to work with you Ryan because you're you were at calling Right, had nothing to do with it.
Ryan Flint 25:02
No, it didn't. And, you know, I have so much respect for all the big firms for Colliers for, you know, for Mountain West, it's just a vehicle to hold your license, you know, they, they provide good support, they've built a good infrastructure, that's wonderful. But at the end of the day, it's it's me and my team serving those that that we work for. And we put in our own infrastructure as a team, to even beef that up more. Because our focus is the customer service side, it's doing that one extra thing that others don't. And that's what makes us special.
Brian Charlesworth 25:45
Great. So I want to talk technology for a minute. My observation, and that obviously, doesn't mean this is correct. But my observation is in speaking with some of the heads of technology, or let me just say commercial brokerages, it seems like they have some great technology at the head, maybe they're spending money on Salesforce or things like that, which is not being done in residential. But if I come down to the team level, I see that in residential, so many of them have CRMs. And they have things Sisu. And they have E signature platforms. And they have you know, the list goes on and on and on. They have most of them usually have like five to seven platforms right now. Sisu is focused on getting that down to two or three. But my observation in commercial is that spreadsheets are still within a team, the number one technology used. Now, tell me am I wrong? There are helped me with this. Ryan, I don't know.
Ryan Flint 27:02
Oh, here we go. So I'm disclosing that I am trying to help the commercial brokerage community. But to be frank, it's very old school. It's very commercialized. You're right. If you look at, we kind of get the rap of, you know, the profile pictures that you see on online are from the 1980s. And, and some of the updating systems or software or CRM systems that that teams use are just, they're old and outdated and slow and not up to a certain technology. Right. They're definitely not team focused unless you all use the same login, which, you know, thank goodness, you know, Salesforce and a couple of others have tried their best to help commercial real estate brokerages. But it's, it's more of a bulk type of focus, you know, hey, can we get the, the 150 200 licensed agents on our program, we'll give them the 10 or 15 tools that they need, and then they can figure it out themselves? Again, Brian, they're not going to do it, they're not going to do it, they're gonna hire an admin. And trust me, been there done that on several different platforms throughout the years, because we're constantly trying to evolve on how we can be better. And what I've realized is, it's good for about two weeks, and then it kind of slips through the cracks. You have other priorities you it's just hard to follow. And so years ago, Geez, it's probably been since probably six, six years ago, seven years ago, I was just, you know, a junior agent, trying to figure out my way. And that was one of the things being very an organized person, not only in my thoughts, but in in how I tried to take care of my clients and all the paperwork that commercial real estate has, was there's got to be something that's more streamline. You know, I had tried, like I said, three, four or five different services and certain brokerages have contracts with certain you know, Salesforce or or, I mean, client look, I mean, I don't even know to be honest what they are. But what I realized was that the way I did customer service was not even close to our CRM system or tracking or technology. And so grateful enough, I found you and you said, Hey, let's This is working like crazy for teams. on the residential side. Let me show you. And let me show you how easy it is for it to go the commercial real estate route. Because in commercial real estate, we spend so much money on our support staff, it's a lot different than the residential world, a lot of my residential real estate agent, friends have virtual assistants, I could never do that. Never, ever, ever, I have to have somebody here, Manning, all of those, those documents, all of the due diligence, it's so much more tedious. I mean, we're talking a lot more, not necessarily volume, but transactional pricing. And you have the sophistication on the other side of the table, rather than just somebody emotionally trying to buy a house in the neighborhood that can close in five days. But looking behind you, I mean, that Sisu TV is exactly what circulated in our office. And the beauty of it is, we have to evolve in every aspect of our business, especially in the commercial real estate world to where it's geared towards teams. If you read everything in real estate, it's all going towards teams. No, you know, it's not an individualized game anymore. And those that are that are kind of on their own, get left in the dust. And there's no way they can compete. No, they can't compete. And I don't mean that, you know, any negativity to that, because we've all been on our own. we've all tried it, but it just doesn't work like teams does. And that's what Sisu does so well is not only can we see every document to every deal, but our clients can see it real-time. Hey, what's going on with my property? What updates what offers what LOIs? What interest? What showings have we had this week, who's showing it? What kind of financials do they have, all the way up to, hey, let's play a game in our team and see if we can, you know, make X amount of calls and have X amount of engagements to new clientele. And it's just, we've just realized so much that technology is we're a couple steps behind the residential. And it needs to evolve with something like Sisu, or it's just gonna continue to be that old-school mentality.
Brian Charlesworth 32:18
So are you telling me we should put some focus in the commercials? Oh, absolutely.
Ryan Flint 32:21
Because it's, you know, we've, we've been on your platform for a little while. And it's, and, you know, you and I talked, hey, let's see how it goes. But it's been, it's been amazing. And anything that I've had needs for as far as maybe a section in there that's not focused on commercial, you, your guys added in pretty quick. I think the biggest challenge that we have in commercial is the lack of education, Brian, it again, I don't mean to keep beating the word on old school, but the mentality is pretty old school. And it needs to be a little bit more hip and fun, and also affordable. Because some of these bigger groups, they're very expensive if it's just a few licenses. And so unless you get the whole thing, but there are so many things in commercial real estate that I wish I could change, but we're just doing everything we can to change us within and then try and educate others as we get a grip around it.
Brian Charlesworth 33:28
So I have one other question around commercial real estate, then I want to talk about some other areas with you here, Ryan. But an observation I have is, if I look at residential real estate, you know, we work with a couple 1000 teams now and over half of those are run by women. Okay? If I look at commercial, I don't see that. And am I missing something? Or is, you know, is commercial still like a good old boys club? Or what? What's the situation there? I don't think he is many women in commercial real estate as I do residential. And I mean, there are some powerful women in residential real estate today.
Ryan Flint 34:09
Yeah. And you know what, that's a really good question, in which I've talked a lot about it to my peers, and to on some of the stages that I've been on, is I have a lot of friends that are women in residential real estate, like your wife spring, she's a powerhouse, and it's evident that the power that you feel when she speaks commercial real estate has always had a stereotype of a being intimidating, of being scary. And it's not. There are women in commercial real estate as brokers and executives that do outstanding and are there are oh, they're there. They're such powerful women. And I always encourage that too, too. Bro, we need more powerful women in commercial real estate and in my team and in our brokerage and some of the, some of the relationships that I have with, with women in the business is doing everything that we can to empower them to become more, to say more to talk more to teach more, and put them on a pedestal to shine. So many times, they're, they're just put in roles of being administrative assistants, or licensed agents, or, or runners or operational people and, and those women that have kind of stepped up and showed their leadership, they are so much respected. And I a big goal of mine is is to empower more women and empower more leaders within the commercial real estate world to look at bringing more women to the table, I think it's, they bring it, they bring a whole different dynamic, you know, there, there's got to be a certain type of person, right, it's not a passive type of business, where residential can be, but those that Excel, like spring, and some of her friends that do very well, in that space, have the personality and the demeanor of natural leadership. It's just getting them into that next phase. Or, or if something you know, there's just not a lot of people interested in, in taking the leap of faith or, or the courage to get into commercial because when I do recruit, or I talk to people about commercial real estate, or they ask, it's always, I always feel like there's some sort of intimidation, or Oh, it's too big for me, or it's scary, or I could never deal with business owners and you know what they're wrong. That's, that's just a, they need a little bit more confidence, men and women to have the courage to do that. But also, that's maybe we're going to go there here in a minute. But that's where the next step of my life is, is helping educate not only from a technology side and commercial real estate but from a team side. And from a leadership side, whether men or women, and empowering them to be the best versions of themselves and whatever they want to do. Obviously, my niche is commercial real estate. But uh, yeah, we need more of them. Long, long, long-winded answer. But yeah,
Brian Charlesworth 37:37
It sounds like it's just a little bit behind. I mean, I think at one point, residential was that way, and now it's kind of dominated by our powerful women. Ryan, you started to mention what you kind of what your vision is, but I know, you do a lot of consulting or I see you on stage a lot now. So you're out there being you know, contributing, giving back to the community. What what is it that motivates you to do that?
Ryan Flint 38:06
So that's a great question. And I appreciate that I, as I mentioned when I started in real estate, I was kind of just put into a corner phonebook. And I wasn't taught anything from mentors, I had mentors, I have mentors, I have people that I look up to, but never to an extent that I have wanted to give back that I have. And when we talked about customer service, it was man, if I can pioneer this, I can pioneer on how to be a good leader or mentor when people want to get into the business. You know, when we're talking about women, it just takes one Ryan and there's a couple out there that are super powerful. But it takes a woman to be a leader, but she's got to get there somehow, someway with the lack of education or just throwing somebody in a corner with a phone book. That doesn't empower anybody, they feel like they're working for somebody else, or they feel you know, slave driven, whatever you want to call it, but there's no empowerment, there's no encouragement. And I told myself my upbringing with my mom and dad was special in the sense of they were always giving, giving, giving, giving and so if there's one thing that I learned in my life was the humanitarian the call its customer service, I always talk about that. And I told myself when early in the business that hey if I get to the place in my life, and there I didn't put any money on it or anything like that it was when I get to the place in my life in my career, that I can then lead and give back and do it authentically and not force it. That's what I want to do. So when you see me speaking at events or on stage or on certain platforms, it's out of the goodness of my heart, wanting to give back. There are so many times that I'm asked how do I get into commercial real estate? How? How do I build my team, teams and commercial are so different than teams in residential 100%. But you tell me online where you can google or Go find anything that has to do with helping somebody get better in commercial real estate. It's not out there. And if it is out there, it's not very good. It's very old. It's very, you know, the, there's nothing creative behind it. And so I thought, Okay, I'm going to be that source, I'm going to lead with love. And I'm going to authentically show people for no cost, how to do it, how to get in there. And honestly, let me before I teach you how to do it, let me tell you everything about what not to do. Because there's more to that than there is to how to do it. It's not rocket science. Luckily, I have, again, very good connections that have talked to me, like this, whether it's on podcasts or, or just relationships that I've had that know my story that, that have those opportunities to get me in front of people. And so, again, it's just an act of customer service, giving back loving people, and being the resource when it comes to commercial real estate. On opening up some doors for people,
Brian Charlesworth 41:47
It's obvious that that's who you are as a person, just always wanting to help others and, and be there for others. I want to learn more about this real estate Avengers, and I know we're short on time. Ryan, do you have a hard stop here at the hour? No, we're good, Brian. Okay, so tell me about the real estate adventures. I, I'm very curious about this. I don't know a lot about it. I know several people who are in this group. And I see you all post about it the same time. But tell me more about it.
Ryan Flint 42:16
So real estate Avengers is a mastermind or network group made up of really high net worth individuals that are in the real estate space. Most of them are business owners that invest into real estate. I mean, from every area of the country from every different business. It all ties together because we all love real estate. So it's a hand-selected, invite-only type of situation to where we come together. As a group, it's very organized. And we get together three times a year in person, we have a call together every week, every Thursday, and we rotate who the speaker is teaching every Thursday. And then when we get together in person. Our leaders bring in the top talent from our from around the world. And we learn how to become better people, not just better real estate investors or agents or brokers or property managers, we really learn how to be better people. And that's what I love about the real estate Avengers group. And the connections that I have made there, Brian are absolutely priceless. I have of some of my closest friends are from that group. Unless you followed them or unless you knew a lot about them, you would never know that they're worth eight, nine figures, you would never know that they're multi-millionaires billionaires, some of them. And it's because in that group, you get the raw you get authentic, you get to see them want to serve me, the little guy as if I was their best friend. And as we've all put our heads together, we've you know, from people that own a restaurant, but they own the real estate. Right and tons of restaurants, but they own the real estate and brokers. We collaborate we talk and the value that I have received not only from a transactional standpoint, which is wonderful because, you know, there's got to be a little bit of a return on the investment or the time that you put into it. It's time to 100 Honestly, it's priceless. I say that with 100% conviction that it's priceless. The relationship depths that I've had, the information that I've gathered, I feel like, what makes me powerful is the people that I have in my corner. Every deal that I do from a corporate standpoint, outside of the state of Utah, I have a person, and it's a, it's a relationship just like you and I have to wear, they know how I would take care of the customer, and vice versa. And we have that expectation with each other. And so I could rant and rave all day long about how amazing it is. And, and if you feel like, you know, and this is for the listeners, but if you feel like, you're ready for that next level, or you're, you're a leader that wants to learn how to lead more, connect with me, we grow the group, but we grow it very methodically, again, it's kind of an invite-only. But we're not selfish to just keep it small. Again, everybody in that group wants to give back and help for the better good. And again, it's every avenue of the business. So we've got people that are residential, real estate agents, you know, somebody like you, it would be wonderful, Brian, because you bring a whole different dynamic and aspect to the real estate game. From the commercial or the corporate real estate broker, executive advisor, that I am, I bring a totally different dynamic, we've got guys in there that see the future with cryptocurrencies and what the future is there with real estate. It's just unbelievable. And so I'm the little guy there. And I love that because if I'm surrounding myself with people that are better than me, or that are making me stretch, I'm winning.
Brian Charlesworth 46:53
Absolutely, I mean, who we surround ourselves with, really determines who we are right determines where we're going, determines our future. So constantly leveling that up. And that's what I want to do to share this. I think it's an amazing group. I know a lot of you guys in there, whenever you get together and I see all the videos, I'm like, yeah, there's someone's over there, you know? Yeah. And so anyway, it's fun to see. Thank you for sharing that, Ryan. We do have a lot of powerful leaders that you know, are in our circles and that listen to this podcast, so maybe you can share with them what the best way to get ahold of you is in case they do want to connect with you on that or anything else you've talked about today.
Ryan Flint 47:37
Yeah, you bet you can find me on Instagram. I'm on LinkedIn, Ryan Flint, my Instagram handle is @the.RyanFlint. Or you can just send me an email to info at RyanFlintteam.com. Maybe you can put it in in a link or something, Brian if you're..
Brian Charlesworth 48:01
Yeah we can add that when the show is out
Ryan Flint 48:04
Again, reach out, I've got a full team of support. Again, we're we're very customer service oriented. So there's no wrong or right. answer question. Whatever I can do to provide value to your listeners is, is important to me with nothing for me in return.
Brian Charlesworth 48:26
Alright, so Ryan, I just want to thank you for being on the show. One of the reasons I do this is because I get to interact with people like you and I love it. I've met so many people by having, you know, just having them on my show. And you and I know each other but so many of my guests I don't know until they come on the show. And it's it's very interesting. But I usually maintain a relationship with them ongoing once they've been on here. So it's a great way for me to learn great way for me to get people like you on here that I can just ask anything I want to so if you guys like you don't have a podcast and you want to be able to ask people questions. It's such a great way to be able to learn what you want to learn. But anyway, Ryan, thank you so much for being on the show. To all of our guests and listeners. Thank you for listening. I believe this will possibly be our last show of 2021 I believe this will air next Tuesday. Right. So when that happens, we will let you know. And again, thank you for joining today. It's been a lot of fun.
Ryan Flint 49:34
Thanks for having me, Brian. You're a stud. Love you guy.
